'Do you really have the kind of money', asks Paytm CEO's mother regarding his $2.4 billion net worth

Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma had no idea before launching the company Initial Public Offering (IPO) that it will make his net worth reach $2.5 dollars.

Not long ago, 43-year-old Sharma, born in Uttar Pradesh to a school teacher and a homemaker had become India's youngest billionaire in 2017. 

In an interview with a news agency, Sharma said that he had no idea that what he was doing for the longest time. He said that once his mother read about him and his net worth in the newspaper and ended up asking him, "Vijay, do you really have the kind of money they say you have?'" 

When Sharma was 27, he was making a humble Rs 10,000 per month. Sharma said, "In 2004-05, my father asked me to shut my company and take up a job even if it was for 30,000 rupees." 

Currently, Forbes puts Sharma's current net worth at $2.4 billion. 

For the unversed, Paytm had begun as a small mobile recharging company and later on grew when Uber listed it as a quick payment option in India. It also profited when demonetisation was announced and everyone depended on digital transactions. 

With backers like SoftBank and Berkshire Hathaway, Paytm has managed to explore several other market investment options for its consumers like insurance and gold sales, movie and flight ticketing, and bank deposits and remittances.

In 2017, Paytm launched a bill payments app in Canada and a year later entered Japan with a mobile wallet.

"My dream is to take the Paytm flag to San Francisco, New York, London, Hong Kong and Tokyo. And when people see it they say - you know what, that's an Indian company," Sharma said.